A Sky Full of Stars
by Kellyyy
Summary: It's been four years when he sees her walking through town. Follow-up to Stay the Night With Me. LP.


**Summary: **It's been four years when he sees her walking through town. Follow-up to _Stay the Night With Me_. LP.

**AN:** Hello! This is kind of a follow-up to a story I posted a few months back: _Stay the Night With Me_. I suppose it's not really necessary to read that one beforehand, but you know, it'll probably won't hurt either. I know this one doesn't go into much detail, but I just felt like writing some happy LP. Thank you for reading!

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**A Sky Full of Stars**

It's been four years when he sees her walking through town. He squints his eyes, not sure if it's really her.

She's wearing a yellow summer dress that hugs her body in all the right ways, her sunglasses perched on top of her head. He sees her narrow her eyes at the sign that hangs from the door of the record shop she used to visit regularly, then turn around, and even from across the street he can tell she's disappointed at what the sign said.

He's sure it's her now, and she still takes his breath away. She walks away without noticing him, but he can't find it in himself to move. He's supposed to meet Nathan inside the café, but he can't get himself to take his eyes away from her disappearing figure.

A few moments later, Nathan joins him on the sidewalk,

"Was that…" He trails off and finally, Lucas turns his head, looking at his brother.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure that was Peyton."

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Peyton drops her keys on the small table next to the door and walks inside of her newly purchased beach house. The walls are freshly painted and it's not completely furnished yet, but it already feels like home.

She loves coming home to the view of the ocean.

She's only been back in Tree Hill for a week or so, and she hasn't told anyone yet, except for Brooke. She's not hiding, she's been into town quite a few times already actually, but she hasn't run into anyone yet. She hasn't stopped by the café yet, or paid a visit to Nathan and Haley's.

She doesn't really know why, but she felt like settling back in first before she made her presence known.

It's mid-July, the air hot and humid, but Peyton's backyard is basically the ocean so she decides to go for a quick swim. She's gone halfway the distance to the water, about to take off her sundress, when a voice stops her,

"So, it's really you then." He calls out, walking closer to the curly blonde.

Peyton turns around, her eyes quickly settling on his, her smile widening. "Nate!" She meets him halfway, throwing her arms around him.

He quickly reciprocates the hug, lifting her off the ground just a little. "You back in town, Sawyer?"

She nods her head and points behind her, "That's actually my new home." She smiles and he lets out an impressed whistle. "Do you want to come in for a beer?" She offers and laughs when he tells her he never passes up on a beer.

They sit down on Peyton's porch, both holding a cold beer in their hands, and they make small talk for a while, but Nathan's never really been one for beating around the bush.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming back?" He asks and throws a quick look over his shoulder inside her home. Her walls are painted, the place is almost completely furnished, and it's clear she didn't just arrive the day before. "Are you hiding out here on the beach?"

"I'm not." Peyton answers defensively, but he stares her down and she can't help but sigh. "I'm not, Nate. Honestly."

He gives her unbelieving look, "Then why didn't you just tell us? You got this beautiful home, you seem settled in. That took some planning, right?" He says, but she's not meeting his eyes. "You almost gave Luke a heart attack earlier, a little head's up would've been nice."

Her head snaps up when he mentions Lucas. "Did Lucas see me?"

She hasn't come back for Lucas. She liked working in LA, she's gotten opportunities, but she wanted more. And she missed Tree Hill. When one of her friends in LA told her she'd be great at running her own label, it didn't take very long before she starting planning. She actually really wanted her own label, and she wanted it located in Tree Hill.

She drew up a business plan, went to the bank, and started planning her move.

Nathan nods, "He did. He saw you at the record store in town."

She hasn't come back for Lucas, but to say that the idea of them being in the same town again doesn't affect her would be lying.

"Is the whole Peyton Sawyer/Lucas Scott drama about to start again?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at her.

Peyton lets out a few chuckles, "There is no Peyton Sawyer/Lucas Scott drama. Won't be." His raised eyebrow stays firm in place and she hates him for knowing her so well. At the same time, she loves that being away for five years hasn't changed anything. "You're so annoying. I don't know how Haley puts up with you."

He laughs loudly, "Go and change the subject, Sawyer. Real subtle." He says and she rolls her eyes at him.

They do change the subject though, and before they know it, two hours have passed and the sun is starting to set. Nathan hugs her when he gets up to leave, tells her that he's really glad that she's back.

She says it right back, and it's really only now that she realizes just how much she has missed her friend. He invites her to dinner the next day and though she knows chances are high that Lucas will be there, she can't help but smile and tell him she'll come.

He's about to walk down the steps of her porch when she calls out to him,

"Is he happy? Lucas, I mean. Has he been living his dream?" She bites her lip a little, hopes that the answer is yes. It's what she always wanted for him; it's one of the reasons why she told him they should let each other go.

Nathan smiles, his heart going out for his friend. It's written all over her face how much she still cares about his brother. "I'm like ninety-nine percent sure you've read his novels so you know he's doing what he always wanted to do." He says and she smiles because yes, she has read them. "I think he's happy. He's been living a good life. But I also think he still misses you."

She nods softly, offers him a small smile, and walks inside her home when he heads for the beach.

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"Dude," Nathan mutters, offering his brother a beer as he comes to stand next to him.

Lucas takes the beer and shoots a confused look at Nathan, "What?"

"Stop staring at Peyton's legs." The younger Scott answers, a smirk around his lips.

Peyton's standing on the patio, talking and laughing with Haley, and it's more than obvious that Lucas can't keep his eyes off her. It's been like this all evening and Nathan has been watching it in amusement.

"I'm not." Lucas argues and glares at his brother before purposefully turning away from the two women. Nathan just raises his eyebrows at him. He can't believe how much alike the two blondes are. Even after all those years, being in denial is still one of their most mastered skills. "I can't help it that she's wearing a summer dress, okay?" Lucas then grumbles and Nathan barks out a loud laugh before he can help himself. Lucas just mutters an _I hate you_ to his brother and leaves him standing on his own.

Later in the evening, when the night has settled in and Nathan and Haley are inside doing the dishes (insisting they didn't need the two blondes' help), he finds Peyton on one of the swings in the backyard. He takes a seat on the swing next to hers and thinks he catches her smile at the ground when he does so.

They haven't spoken much yet, haven't really spoken at all actually. He's spent the night being too shocked about seeing her again and she has been catching up with Haley. All he's wanted to do all evening is talk to her, though.

"Remember the first time we met at the swings in a backyard?" He breaks the silence after a while, his voice soft, almost a whisper.

She meets his eyes, "Of course I do."

They basically know nothing about each other lives right now; don't know what they're doing, don't know if the other is seeing someone new. Somehow, though, there's this mutual understanding that the feelings that once existed between the two of them, never really disappeared . It's been four years since their break up and it shouldn't feel this easy.

It does, though.

"So you're back? For good?"

Peyton nods, "I am."

"Alone?" He asks, because he still has to. Can't not do so.

She lets out a soft chuckle, a little impressed by his boldness. She doesn't think she'd be able to be this straightforward. "Alone." She affirms, rolls her eyes a little when she notices him duck his head and smile boyishly.

He's about to say something, but she stops him; has to tell him something,

"I didn't come back for you. I wasn't unhappy in LA, my life wasn't miserable."

Lucas looks confused for a moment, "Okay?"

"I didn't come back for you. That said, I did really miss you, Lucas."

It's her way to tell him she hasn't really moved on; hasn't really been able to, and she doesn't doubt that he'll catch up on that.

He lets himself smile, his fingers itching to reach out for hers. Instead, he looks up, at the dark sky littered with stars. He can see her do the same from the corner of his eye and can't help but smile again.

In the end, he does reach out for her hand, lets her know without words that he really missed her too.

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"No, Brooke, we're not getting back together." Peyton says with a sigh. It's early in the evening and she's on her back porch painting her toe nails with the phone between her ear and her shoulder.

Brooke just scoffs and tells her she doesn't believe a word of it. And maybe Brooke is right not to; Peyton herself doesn't even truly believe it. They talk for another few minutes before Peyton's door bell goes, surprising her so much it sends the bottle of nail polish tumbling to the ground.

She curses under her breath, tells Brooke she has to go, and heads for the door.

When she opens it, she's met with blond hair, a smile she's come to recognize anywhere and a bottle of white wine.

Her stomach does a back flip as she smiles as well and lets him in.

"Hope I don't disturb?" Lucas says, his face a little bit apologetic for just dropping by like that.

Peyton shakes her head, "Of course not. Just go through the back, I'll be there in a sec." She tells him and then disappears into the kitchen to get some glasses and something to clean up the nail polish.

He's almost grinning as he walks through her living room, loves the way she's put her furniture together. One of the walls is still empty, save for the few shelves she's already put up and he's ninety-nine percent sure she's planning on covering it completely with shelves for her music.

Another wall is entirely covered by a painting that is so clearly Peyton's; he falls in love with it before he can even take a closer look.

To be honest, that's also sort of the way it was with Peyton years and years ago.

He walks out of the room, onto the back porch and takes in the amazing view on the ocean. He's almost wishing he lived there himself.

"Nice view, huh?" Peyton speaks up behind him, two glasses in her hand.

He turns to face her and nods, "It's lovely. You got a really nice place here."

She smiles at him gratefully and motions towards the table. They both take a seat and Lucas starts opening the bottle of wine. She has no clue why he's there, but she's not really going to question it. She supposes he just wanted to come by, wanted to catch up, and she can't find any reason not to be okay with that.

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"Why didn't you tell anyone you were coming back?" He asks later into the night, when the sun has already set. Their bottle of wine is almost finished and they've moved to the beach by now, their toes buried in the sand.

Peyton sighs a little and looks down at her hands. She doesn't really have an answer; has no real reason as to why she didn't tell anyone except for Brooke, who doesn't even live in Tree Hill at the moment so she's not sure that even counts. "Honestly, I don't know. I just wanted to move back, and I guess I didn't want Nathan and Haley to make a big deal out of it. And you know, we hadn't spoken in four years so I wasn't just going to call you up out of the blue."

Lucas lets out a soft chuckle, "Sometimes I wish you would've just called me up out of the blue. I missed talking to you in the last few years."

"So did I. Somehow though, I think not being in touch for so long was a good thing for us." She admits and she's really not lying; she's not trying to justify her decision not to get back together four years ago.

He nods slowly, "Did you find yourself again?"

"I think I did. Did you go live your dreams?" She asks back and he cracks a smile at that.

"I think I did." He mirrors her words.

"That's all I ever wanted for the both of us."

They lock eyes for a moment and god, he wants to kiss her. He really, really wants to. His thoughts drift back to four years earlier, to the last time he kissed, and it honestly seems like a lifetime ago.

He had promised her that he would always love her, and he still does; he has no business in denying that to himself. But he figures she's also right. They did need time apart. He can tell by the way she walks and talks and laughs, by the way she carries herself, that she really did find herself again. In a way, she's grown into the person he always saw her to be. She's so completely different from the girl he left four years ago and he's so damn _proud _of her.

So incredibly proud of the things she's done in LA and the things she's about to do in Tree Hill. And he can tell that she's actually _happy_. She almost glows; no longer resembling broken pieces stuck together in the hope that it'll be enough to get through another day.

There's no point in denying that he desperately wants to be part of that happiness.

Ultimately, he doesn't kiss her. He does pull her closer, though; pulls her down with him so they're laying on their back in the sand.

When he sees a shooting star, he wishes for a second chance.

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She's been back for four weeks and in between setting up her label, she's pretty much spent all of her time with Lucas.

She supposes she could write it off as old friends catching up, but it's so much more than that. They haven't kissed yet, but it hangs in the air every time they do as much as glance at each other.

One day, she's lying on the beach, enjoying the sun, when a shadow falls over her. Looking up, Lucas is standing next to her, two ice-cream cones in his hand.

"You brought ice-cream!" She cries excitedly, jumping up from her spot.

He grins at her, hands over one of the cones, and sits down in the sand next to her. "I still can't believe the ocean is your backyard."

Peyton laughs loudly, then rolls her eyes a little. He keeps on telling her how jealous he is of her beach house; how incredible it is that she just has to walk out the back door and walk onto the beach. "There's a house for sale down the road."

"Really?" He asks, though they both know he's not going to buy a house. "I could be your neighbour."

"You say that as if that would be so beneficial, as if we don't already spend almost all of our time together."

His look turns from playful into soft as he shifts just the tiniest bit closer. "I don't think I'll ever get enough of spending time with you though."

Peyton smiles; she feels the same way. She still loves him, she knows that, and she can't think of any reason not to act upon that. So she leans in; presses her lips against his and feels him kiss her back immediately.

It's not an unexpected kiss, it's a kiss that's been building up for weeks, maybe even years. It's the confirmation to something they've both known for a while now; that this is it for them. That they're ready to be together again, ready to start a life together.

She accidentally drops the ice-cream cone she was still holding when she gets even closer to him, but she can't find it in herself to care as her lips curl into a happy smile against his.

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(**AN: **if anyone is still interested in _You Look And Turn The Pages_, I promisethat there _will_ be a new chapter. I just don't know when. Sorry!)


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